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These are all nice, but I think the #1 important thing to take away is to focus on big ideas and high-level concepts and communicate them clearly. If the slides confuse the viewer or distract them with overly chic typography, they can't be considered successful.

Ultimately, you have to drill down and ask yourself how you can distill the essence of what you want to pitch into a very brief yet powerful slide. Hopefully these slides can help some to do that!

From friends who have worked at FB (in particular, both FB and Google) they report that the culture is a little strange and affected: Mark and others put a big emphasis on the importance of their 'hacker culture,' but try to create said culture through the exhortations to protect it... [?]

Anyway, I can't vouch for Facebook one way or another, but I can say that Google certainly has a very strong culture, although it waxes and wanes depending on where in the company you may be, and can take on different characteristics by business function. Also, you really can only get a certain snapshot by visiting, versus actually working there!

Ah, one of so many reasons I loved UO!

@patio11, I think the scorn for virtual item sales was not always just one of condescension. Rather, the idea was born from a certain economic understanding. If the belief was that virtual item sales would be a fraction of subscriptions, but that virtual sales could upset gameplay and unbalance games, harming the play experience and undermining the community, they were to be eschewed. At least, that was an argument that I would see a lot.

Great idea! 798 is certainly a good place thematically, although transportation wise it's not as accessible as some other sites...? Still, one could do a lot worse :)

Had the pleasure of living in Beijing for a few months last year, hope to be back again soon. Although back on the east coast now, would love to stay in the loop...

Separate any questions about whether or not this fellowship is a good idea, I resent that it's only people under 20... does being one or two years out from that, but still in school, really change you in such a way?

Look forward to seeing what kind of people get chosen for this and how their work turns out.

To be clear, these would be management consulting gigs, albeit in some cases focusing on technology business problems. Some combination of strategy and process/operations.

They also all charge quite high rates, I would imagine, so hopefully my work would be valued - if not valuable.

I'm confused; should this be surprising?

The most important thing I learned from debate in HS was that how you say something matters much more than what you actually say. If you say something true or persuasive but do not communicate that well, you stand little chance against the smooth-talking liars without strong logic.

This being said, I aspire very much to be both eloquent, truthful, and full of substance when communicating and when interviewing. Whatever my strategy may be, it has certainly been successful in all the interviews I've done this fall recruiting round; how you say things really does matter.

I think that schools should force people to practice their public speaking somehow.

Also, article like this remind one that it's a great time to get involved in the startup space... or maybe a bad time! http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/11/17/the-daily-sta...

I was there last year for a semester and had a really great time. The window of opportunity for 外国人 to come and really be entrepreneurial is less open than it was in the past, I think, but there are certainly still opportunities. This is one frame of opportunity where I think some previous experience could really be helpful; working in a garage with friends on an internet something-or-other, less so.

There is a fair gamut, from the very small ( < 100 people) focused on tech, to the very large (~5000) and well-known, and some places in between that emphasize fast development and advancement.

I mean by number of people, that kind of thing. Maybe money is a proxy for that, but not necessarily. The key consideration is: where can I learn the most, the fastest? I am happy to work 90+ hr weeks if I feel I'm working towards something meaningful, or learning a lot. And I think I would be learning more at a start-up than at an established company of any kind, whether consulting or otherwise.

Good thoughts on making an Offer HN - I'll try that out and see how things shake out. My strategy the last few months was to try to pitch myself to different startups that I liked, mixed results. I should have networked more the last two summers in SF bay!

Problem here is that there doesn't seem to be a really good role for me anywhere. Or, better put: Startups the size I want to work at are either not on my radar, or don't seem to want my kind of services (since I don't have _so_ much obviously on tap, though I think I offer a lot!), while those that are bigger offer more narrowly functional (non-technical) roles.

On the other extreme, I did interview for a PM position with Microsoft, but because of location issues wasn't really able to follow through there further. I'd love a way to work while building out these talents more.

This is a big problem, yes. The momentum that you build up. I say it's like getting on a train. You can always get off later, it just gets harder and harder, and you are less and less able to leave for riskier or less immediately lucrative things.

For instance, I am probably trading away the chance to go spend a year doing more intensive language study in China if I take such an offer.

One reason to try to do _something_ is that, as of right now, I really don't have much runway to actually start something. I guess I could try to put together some brilliant MVP in time for S'11 YC, but... :)

It's just sad for competition. Competition for the least censored results (ha) and competition for ad dollars, search quality.

This said, I think an important difference that doesn't come out when a lot of coverage goes down about China / Google / Baidu is the way in which Google gets used in China. It's more complex than just "some people use Google, some use Baidu." For example, who uses which, and why? An interesting question...!

I think you need to narrow your search parameters a little bit here. Just as there are thousands of sites about technology, so too are there thousands on which you can discuss finance. HN is unique in its potent mix of entrepreneurial minds and technical folks; what kind of analogue would you seek for finance? A particular niche? Or just 'real cool people'?

Zero Hedge is nice, check out also other blogs online that you might like, and at least follow along in their community :)

I think that Python is really fun and readable and easy to learn, and a great place to start! But, he probably couldn't go wrong either way. As a similarly not-ultra-technical person who wanted to jump in, I found Python to be a great fit, but both have well supported communities and lots of great tutorials etc.

Where is #startups?

Ah, I presume from this comment that they are all gone then? Dang, that's what I get for spending time studying in the library, instead of on HN...!

Still, your kindnesses are much appreciated and make HN a great place!

Thanks!

I enjoy the Boston weather. People in CA have weather which is too 'nice' all the time (SF excluded, big time) and as a result never know how to appreciate good weather.

I love having seasons and wouldn't trade my beautiful autumns just to be in CA.

The most important take-away from Mandelbrot / fractals as it applies to finance should be the realization that fractals can represent better ways of presenting or simulating financial data than brownian motion / random walks / Black-Scholes. As to why this hasn't been accepted more broadly - well, as the article briefly mentions, there are powerful individual incentives for people to continue to play along in the charade.

If this has not been proved EXTREMELY WELL by events in recent history, I don't know when it would be - but whether from LTCM, or more recently seeing so many CDS etc blow up, it is obvious that many "once in a million" probability events exist than are considered in a proper normal distribution.

Mandelbrot was once asked whether he had any particularly successful strategies for dealing with the market. He said, well, I don't discuss those things - because if I was correct, everyone would follow my lead, and the strategies would no longer work; and if I was wrong, people would discredit the thinking behind it!

Interesting; what (or who) will you be looking for?

Separate from that particular post, nice to read the rest of your back blog posts and see your thinking there. Always good to see people excited and involved in the Boston tech / startup scene - my dream is still to help realize the Second Coming at home..., re the decline of RTE 128 area tech etc.

Keep it up and keep writing and sharing your thoughts as you go along.

Consider how job A will get you to Job or Place B -> over time, initial effects will be much less important than the kinds of opportunities you gain from the early work.

Yes and No.

Firewall the media-play from any technology that hasn't yet been murdered in the cradle, and make sure than each has the resources and direction needed to survive effectively; different strategies for each.

Sounds like Jobs and Wozniak...?

Although, re-reading "The Little Kingdom" seems to present a slightly more complex case.

Ah, but this is just a consideration of the data as it is stored in the medium itself.

What about the weight of all the electrons necessary to do a read-state of the internet wherever it might be encoded or, perhaps better still, the peak transit rate of the internet in regular use - how many bits are being transmitted and what do they weigh as they actually move, rather than relying on arbitrarily chosen storage media as our determinant.

I was nodding along with the premise until I came to this part.

"His company, Intellectual Ventures, intentionally runs counter to the prevailing trend in Silicon Valley."

By, uh, patent trolling?

O_o

No way I would want to share my searches with my friends. Far too many personal and private details there; it would be a mess to try to sync up what I might want shared with whom.

Since day 1, I've been a fierce opponent of iTunes. Although there are now sort-of alternatives, it's one of my strong reasons for not wanting any Apple i* products.

The saddest thing for sure was back in the day, when it was even less useful than it is today (but maybe less bloated) when it was hailed as the Greatest Thing Ever by my teenage cohort.

No, no, no! I yelled from the ramparts, but none would listen. When they would come visit, I would show them the psychedelic visualization power of WinAmp, its flexibility, and many other lovely tricks - to no avail!

Make a persuasive video pitch, add geekery, put it on Reddit. Flawless Victory.

Make the check for my fee payable to...

n.b., do be careful or someone like 4chan might get wind of it and decide to hack / game the system in order to have something strange win to prove their ability to manipulate the online attention economy.